For a long moment – the longest moment – the new Doctor – and blimey, wasn't he young? – stared at Rose, waiting for an answer. Donna and Jack looked from one to another, Jack looking concerned, but Donna looking more and more annoyed. This continued for maybe a minute and a half, until finally, Donna snapped.

"Oh c'mon!" she yelled suddenly. "He's the same bloke. If he's got a box which is bigger on the inside that travels around in time and space, the fact that he changes his face isn't that impossible to believe!"

Rose Tyler, defender of the Earth, turned to her and snapped right back. "It isn't that!"

"Then what is it?" Donna yelled at her. "Cos if that ain't the problem sweetheart, I don't see what the problem is!"

The Doctor leaned back slightly, his brand new eyebrows twitching in a way that Jack noted as being slightly… bemused. Jack wandered over to him as the two women continued to shout, Rose going into the thousand and one reasons why it was hard for her to accept the new Doctor (which came down to the fact that, although she happily accepted that he was the Doctor, she found the last one sexy and didn't much like the look of this one, as well as the fact that she felt it was a bad time to change, given her last experience of the thing, and added to that, a little bit of jealousy of Martha Jones and Donna Noble and a healthy dose of possessiveness. Typical Rose really) and Donna returning the shouts threefold with the same argument, over and over; he was the same man, and just because he looked different, that was no reason to treat him differently.

"Was Rose always this shouty?" the new Doctor asked Jack in a stage whisper that neither woman noticed.

"I dunno," Jack said. "Never got her angry. What about Donna?"

"Oh, definitely," the Doctor said, a smile forming on the new face. "Always shouty. Been very helpful, in point of fact, scared aliens off a lot. One time, there was the race of megalomaniac aliens who couldn't stand loud noises. I just got Donna angry at me, in the same room as their leadership council. They surrendered to the Shadow Proclamation in five minutes."

"Ha!" Jack laughed. "Wish I'd been there."

"Yeah…" the Doctor said. The argument wasn't cooling down. At all. "Blimey, no idea they could go on this much."

"I figure we've got some time before we get to the crucible," Jack said. "Wanna go change?"

He figured the Doctor might like the chance to change. But he wasn't expecting the Doctor to laugh, clap, and jump up and down, before bolting out of a door. Rose and Donna stopped arguing to watch him go.

"Where's he going?" Rose asked.

"To change," Jack replied.

"What, again?" Donna said. "Once wasn't enough?"

"Means the clothes," Rose said, slightly irritably. "But why?"

Jack shrugged. "Look, I'm going to go after him. You guys call when we get to where we're going."

"Which is where, exactly?" Donna asked, hands going to hips.

"The Dalek Crucible," Jack said, grimly. The two women looked at each other uneasily, and Jacks eyebrows furrowed into a frown. "Anyway, ladies, I'd better make sure he doesn't put himself into a tutu."

With that, Jack nodded at them and walked out. Donna looked at Rose, Rose looked at Donna.

"He'd put himself in a tutu?" Donna asked.


The Doctor was in the middle of a great pile of clothes that reached all the way up to the ceiling – it was almost as though he'd buried himself in it.

"You sure you should be exerting yourself so much, Doctor?" Jack asked. "I mean, you have just regenerated… and it was a Dalek shot…"

The Doctor's reply came out muffled, but to Jack, it sounded vaguely like a Carlantian swear word.

"No need for that," he said. The Doctor popped his head out; still wearing the blue shirt.

"Look, Jack, don't mollycoddle me," he said. "Not needed, yeah? I have done this before; nine times before today, in fact. And each time, I came out of it alive, and… relatively, sane. I need a mirror…"

"Doctor," Jack said, "I'm only saying you need to watch yourself. We can't afford for you to be knocked out or unworkable; we need you against the Daleks."

"Pfft, Daleks," the Doctor said. Then he stopped. "Oh yeah, Time War. Oh." His face suddenly stopped, frozen into an expression of half sadness, half sort of – blankness. Then he went "pfft" again. "Metal gits. I'll sort 'em. Take a while, mind, but I will. Just need you to stay in here – they will try to wreck the TARDIS, I know it."

"Why?" Jack asked.

"Because TARDIS's were weapons in the war," the Doctor said. "Never used mine in that capacity, but I heard of TARDIS's used as guns, suicide bombs…"

"Seriously?"

"Time Lords equals desperate to survive," the Doctor said solemnly, disappearing into the pile again. When he spoke again, it sounded vaguely like he was saying "really, insanely, monstrously desperate," although it could have been more expletives in Carlantian. Then the Doctor popped out, wearing a new outfit. Jack's eyes boggled.

"Whaddya think?" the Doctor asked. The outfit was a long coat in various bright, clashing colours, with stripey yellow trousers and a white shirt, with a question mark pullover.

"Um… no," Jack said bluntly. "Sorry Doctor, try harder."

"Ugh, Jack," the Doctor said, going back into the pile. "You are such a party pooper!"

"Someone's gotta be the voice of reason around here," Jack said.

"Yes," the Doctor's muffled voice agreed. "I understand that perfectly well. Intelligent stuff. But, the voice of reason, you? Yeah right."

Jack rolled his eyes.